Last Saturday our little family visited the Iowa State Fair along with Derek's parents, his sister and her family, and half the population of the upper Midwest.
One of the very first things we saw was Squirt.
Who is Squirt? Why, he's a 3,032-pound bull, of course.
One of the great things about having grandparents come with you to the fair is that there's someone else for Atticus to ask uncomfortable questions like, "What are those things hanging from the bottom of the bull?"
Squirt was this year's Biggest Bull. Raise your hand if you love that a massive bull is named "Squirt."
The biggest boar's name was a little less ironic but equally delightful.
Otis! Otis is a 4 1/2 year old, 1,103-pound boar from Buffalo Center, Iowa. I wanted to lay Caedmon down next to him so you'd have a basis for comparison, size-wise, but Cade wasn't having it. Neither was Derek.
Next up was Abraham Lincoln made out of butter. Mr. President can cross that one off his bucket list. Except that he's dead. And I'm guessing they didn't have bucket lists in the mid-1800's. Whatever.
And here we have the butter cow, pre-desecration:
That's right, I wrote "pre-desecration." Because some idiot- or rather, an organized group of idiots- decided that they would garner a little publicity for their animal rights' group by covering the butter cow in red paint and smearing the words "Freedom For All" on her glass enclosure Sunday night after the building was closed. It's incredible how angry I am over this, but rather than giving those astonishingly imbecilic people more of my time and words, I'll just say that I decided Beef really is what's for dinner. Every night this week.
Speaking of the sudden urge to eat as much animal flesh as possible:
Adelaide went head-to-head (or rather head-to-thigh) on a gigantic turkey leg. With a little help from her family, she emerged victorious. And really full.
I had me some Caedmon for lunch:
The 4-H building housed countless gems, of course. My favorites this year: A restored antique ice box...
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| I can't even put into words how much I love this thing. |
...a wheel barrow fairy garden...
...and a cake whose idea I'm pretty sure was stolen from me.
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| 4-H'ers cake at the Iowa State Fair... |
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| ...the cake we made. |
I've decided to let it slide. This time.
And of course no Fair post would be complete without a photo of one of the kids who passed out after a mere 7 hours of Fair fun.
I love the wheelbarrow fairy garden, complete with mini tire-swing! Sculptures made out of butter just blow my mind. Think of the amount of toast you would need to use all that butter. The cakes are both excellent, but yours is better because it has more chocolate on it and you didn't use those sheets of icing that professionals use that I can't remember the word for right now.
ReplyDeleteBut what I'm truly wondering is who has the job of figuring out which animal weighs the most. Cuz they ought to get a prize for doing that job.
Well, according the Iowa State Fair website, the 600-pound butter cow would butter 19,200 pieces of toast.
DeleteI read "the 4H building housed countless GERMS, of course" right under the picture of you kissing Caedmon. :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat is done with all that butter? Does it just have to be thrown out, or can it be used later?
I'm going to have to show that fairy garden to Emma --she has big plans for an empty pot by the back porch.
"Much of the butter is recycled and reused for up to ten years," according to the Iowa State Fair website (again).
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